The present invention relates to a fruit polyphenol; a process for production thereof; and an antioxidant, a hypotensive agent, an antimutagenic agent, an antiallergic agent and an anticariogenic agent each comprising said polyphenol as an effective component.
In growing the trees of Rosaceae which bear edible fruits such as apple, pear, peach and the like, "thinning-out" of superfluous fruits is generally carried out in the period of mid May to mid July. In this thinning-out, unripe fruits in the form of bunch or cluster are removed with some of them left unremoved. Consequently, a large amount of unripe fruits are disposed by the thinning-out, without being utilized. These unripe fruits are very bitter as compared with ripe fruits, and the sectional surface of each unripe fruit turns brown easily. This fact suggests the presence of a large amount of polyphenol compounds in unripe fruits.
It is known that polyphenol compounds are generally present in the plant kingdom as a secondary metabolite of plant in numerous kinds and in a large amount. Some of these polyphenol compounds have drawn attention for their diversified physiological activities, from the past in the field of pharmacology and in recent years in the field of food chemistry.
Among them, tea polyphenol (catechins) is drawing particular attention and concentrated researches are under way thereon. This tea polyphenol is being recognized to have very wide physiological activities such as antibacterial activity, antiviral activity, antioxidative activity, antimutagenic activity, anticancerous activity, platelet coagulation-inhibiting activity, blood pressure increase-inhibiting activity, blood sugar increase-inhibiting activity, blood cholesterol-reducing activity, anticariogenic activity, antiallergic activity, intestinal flora-improving activity, deodoring activity and the like [Japanese Patent Application Kokai (Laid-Open) Nos. 214183/1988, 6499/1990, 178320/1992, etc.].
Thus, it is known that, for example, the polyphenol extracted from tea has wide physiological activities.